The development of a ferritic heat-resisting steel as a steel product for high-temperature, high-efficiency energy plants, which has a very high creep strength and is less susceptible to stress corrosion cracking such as is observed in an austenitic stainless steel, has been strongly desired in the art, and such a ferritic heat-resisting steel has begun to be actually used.
As a filler material or a welding wire for use in welding of the above ferrite heat-resisting steel, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 60-257991 proposes a welding wire for a 9Cr-Mo-base steel, which welding wire comprises C, Si, Mn, Cr, Mo and Ni in respective specified contents with at least one of Nb and V being added thereto in a total content of not more than 0.3%. Further, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2-280993 proposes an 8-12Cr-base filler material or welding wire which comprises C, Si, Mn, Cr, Ni, Mo, W, V, Nb, Al and N in respective contents specified so as to give a Cr.sub.eq value of 13.
The above conventional filler materials or welding wires, however, cannot be expected to have a markedly improved creep strength and, further, have a drawback that .delta. ferrite precipitates in a martensitic phase to markedly lower the toughness. The .delta. ferrite is much softer than martensite as the matrix. A metallic structure comprising a hard martensitic matrix and, dispersed therein, .delta. ferrite has a very low impact toughness.